Equipment become dump when is an Xref ????

[Anonymous]

Hi

In plant3D combined model I imported as xRef an equipment made with plant3D.

I can't connect any pipe on the equipment nozzles. nozzle nodes seems dump.

Same thing for xref pipe.

It is normal ?

If no, where is my mistake ?

If yes , how manage complex projet with several battery limits and inter-connections???

Thanks

[PeterQuinn]

You still should be able to snap to the node of a nozzle or to the node of an open piping component. You won't get any of the grips, including the + connection grip for Xrefs. This is standard AutoCAD behavior.

Is this what you're seeing?

[Anonymous]

Hi,

Even if I can catch the node of the xRef flange, it leaks and the automatic routing don't work.

I understand that we have to build all pipes and all equipments in the a unic dwg to keep the Plant3D functionalities of piping routing. And this even if we need to build a big project.

Am I true ?

[PeterQuinn]

Hmm. This is supposed to work. You are supposed to be able to put a piece of equipment in an xref and connect to it. You should not have to, and should not put the entire model in one drawing. Any reasonable size project will end up with a huge drawing. Also this will limit you to one person working on a project at a time.

[Anonymous]

Hi Peter,


I'm not sure to understand :


"This is supposed to work" mean I should able to connect a pipe to an xRef equipment as I do when pipe and equipment are in the same dwg with 2011 P3D version ?


I can not obtain the "+" on the xref equipment nozzle or reconize the size and class of  xref nozzle flange when I try to connect a pipe.


Sure, the  xref nozzle flange node is reconized , but even if it is connected to a pipe, the connection is leaky and pipe's type and size of pipe is not automatically adapted to the nozzle.


This is supposed to work in the future or now ? Do I use badly or misunderstand something with xRef ?


Thanks

[Anonymous]

hum ..

it seams that this subjet is not really new ...

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/AutoCAD-Plant-3D/Has-anyone-used-Plant-3D-on-a-major-project-yet/m-p/2...

any answer in 2012 version ?

[PeterQuinn · Accepted solution]

Jim,

Connecting to a piece of equipment in an xref works. There must be something out of the ordinary in your drawing/project or how you're going about doing it.

The + grip is not intended to work with an Xref because grips are not active in Xrefs. Perhaps this standard behavior could be better - We've heard a number of comments that people would like to see it. 

I have a couple of ideas as to why connections aren't working for you. 

1) Perhaps you have a mismatch in flange rating. The nozzles on the default equipment are 300# RF. If you're using a 150# spec, it won't connect. 

2) You must insert the xref at 0,0,0 for the connection to work. There is a warning message about this that you may have seen. 

[Anonymous]

Hi Peter

Thanks, you was right and I did not read then message and I did not insert the xref at 0,0,0 !

Ok like this it works.

But not easy to use : not easy to suppose the final position of the equipment before to insert it into general/main/father model ?

Have you a method ?

Thanks

[Anonymous]

But not easy to use : not easy to suppose the final position of the equipment before to insert it into general/main/father model ?

depending on the size of the project, if you have an equipment layout drawing, you can xref that into the equipment model, position the equipment, then detatch it, use it over and over.  If you are doing skid based work, xref in the skid to the equipment model, then position, then detach.  You just have to work backwards a little to make it work.  

Typically, we recomed an equipment layout drawing, or plot plan to be a seperate drawing anyway from the master, then use it all over.

This is from the AutoCAD Help Section, on doing overlays of xrefs to make this more manageable:

You can also overlay an xref on your drawing. Unlike an attached xref, an overlaid xref is not included when the drawing is itself attached or overlaid as an xref to another drawing. Overlaid xrefs are designed for data sharing in a network environment. By overlaying an xref, you can see how your drawing relates to the drawings of other groups without changing your drawing by attaching an xref.